Those towels would soon be soiled again, and he found himself smiling grimly at the thought. There was so much more to do. He knew he was the one who had the power in this situation, and the thought of that filled him with a sense of pride. He might not have huge muscles or strength, but he had something better.
The ability to kill those who possessed such attributes. If you were on his list, then you were going to die. It was as if his life had been building up to this moment, and he was ready for it.
He was ready for more. And luckily, thanks to his planning and his careful research, there would be more.
Soon.
CHAPTER TEN
May thought that Sheriff Jack looked as mad as she'd ever seen him. He was furious, emotion threatening to boil over, and it gave May a sick feeling in her belly to know that she'd caused this. It was thanks to her actions that her boss was so livid.
"May, what's going on?" he asked. She could hear the anger in his tone. "I sent you out to investigate a murder that was very close to home for me. And you brought in my daughter? Is this a joke?"
May was silent for a moment, unable to find the words to explain. She had no choice but to try and justify the situation to Sheriff Jack. At least Owen was standing supportively by her side, and she knew her deputy would have her back on this.
"Jack, I understand why you are upset."
"That's understating it," he snapped.
"We had a reason to believe that your daughter might have been involved in the murder. We had evidence that pointed to her, and we had to investigate it thoroughly. She . . . she got upset when we brought up the subject.”
That was a nice way of saying she’d slapped Owen. And May saw Jack’s face twitch. She thought he knew what his daughter was capable of. After all, she’d inherited a seriously forceful personality from her dad. There was no way he couldn’t have noticed that.
“We had no choice but to bring her in for questioning. We had to do this correctly. We had to check her whereabouts at the time of the crime and get to the truth. In the end, she found an alibi and confirmed that her time was accounted for at the time of his death. I'm sorry, and I understand how difficult this must be for you." She felt breathless after explaining all of this. And of course, it seemed like Jack still had questions.
"What do you mean, she might have been involved?"
Now Jack was frowning, but at least he didn't seem as blazingly mad as he had been.
There was no way of avoiding this. She had to explain why they’d concluded what they had. She wouldn’t have done so to a dad, but the problem was that Jack wasn’t only a dad, but also the senior detective in charge of this case. So, she had to.
"Things weren’t perfect between them," May said with a sigh. "Based on certain evidence found on her phone, we discovered she and Ed had been having serious problems, and that she was not happy in her marriage."
"What?" Jack sounded astonished. This was clearly news to him. "Are you sure?"
"Very sure," May insisted. “The tone of the messages, and the discussion of divorce, left no room for doubt.”
Jack gaped at her for a full minute. May had the impression he was recalibrating a lot of the reality he’d had surrounding his daughter.
"Why didn't she tell me? I could have done something; I could have helped her. Got counseling for them, maybe. Or else supported her in the divorce. Why didn't I know?"
May shook her head. "Maybe she didn't want to tell you. You know what daughters are like with their dads. I’m sure she idolized you and didn’t want you to worry. Perhaps she was scared, Jack. She was scared that if you knew, you'd be disappointed in her. She was trying to protect you, and herself. She was trying to do the best she could in a bad situation. But unfortunately, we realized, she did have a motive and needed to be thoroughly questioned."
May looked at her boss with sympathy. It was obvious he was struggling with this news. He was a good father, and he wanted to protect Molly. But there were limits to what he could do, and he was learning that now.
"I'm sorry, Jack," May said, her voice gentle. "I know this must be hard for you. But we had to do what was right. We had to investigate the murder. We had to get to the truth."
Sheriff Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He seemed to have calmed down a bit, and he nodded slowly. "Okay. I understand. I guess I just didn't realize how hard this was going to be for me. I just want to do right by her, you know?"
“Of course,” May said. It was weird that now she felt as if Jack was unloading on her.
"She's always been the best daughter. She's never, ever disappointed me. She's never been a rebellious daughter, never gone through a difficult phase. She's been a good, successful person. The light of my life. I guess to have this bombshell on top of the death, is hard."
"At least you know now," May sympathized. "And it will bring you closer, now that you do."
"Now that she's not keeping things from you and trying to be something she’s not, I think you'll have a better relationship," Owen backed up her theory.
"Yes, I am sure we will, and this has taught me that I need to communicate better with her, also," Jack said thoughtfully.
